28 January 2007

A quiet weekend around these parts, though plenty of good sports on TV. Here are some thoughts for the weekend that was.

The Suns are nearly unstoppable. The only things that can stop them are injury, Steve Nash's minutes (which are reasonable at 35 a game and should not rise above that if the Suns want to keep him fresh through the playoffs), and the Dallas Mavericks. The Spurs are a potentially dominant team, especially with Duncan playing better this year, but they don't run nearly as deep as the Suns. Ironically, I think the Stoudemire injury may have helped them, though I wouldn't wish injury upon anyone. Even so, Shawn Marion, who's not underrated but rather underappreciated, reportedly has in the past felt insecure about his role with the team and the amount of attention paid to Stoudemire. Stoudemire's injury and gradual comeback have perhaps -- and again, this is simply speculation -- allowed the Suns to rebuild in a way. This time, it was Stoudemire who was the outsider of sorts, and it's taken some time to reintegrate him into the team's offense, but he's back, averaging 20 and 10 in January. In the meantime, Marion and Nash were the rocks of the team, and perhaps Marion feels a bit more secure in his role. (Does this make sense?) Also, it has to be a morale boost that Stoudemire has essentially been the only NBA player to have microfracture surgery and return to his former level of play. It's a testament to his determination and what a freakishly good athlete he is.

Todd Helton might be traded to the Red Sox for Julian Tavarez, Mike Lowell, and prospects. Whether this is a good deal for the Rockies depends in part on the prospects, so it's too soon to comment. Still, they're looking for financial flexibility but may end up paying half of the 6 years/$90.1 million left on Helton's deal? I don't like it. Helton's decline over the last few years has been saddening, even for this Dodgers fan, but he still has significant value. His average, OBP, and defense are all still there, even if his power's not. Is Helton's back that bad that the Rockies are willing to pay to get rid of him? Last season, Helton had a calf injury and some sort of intestinal problem where he lost weight and was weakened for much of the season, so it's hard to hold that against him. The point is that this isn't a Mike Hampton situation -- Helton has given the Rockies some incredible seasons and hasn't complained about the various permutations and experiments that Rockies' management has tried (to little effect). Now that the Rockies finally have some great young talent and the humidor is working (sort of), they're ready to get rid of him? Strange, especially given that they traded Ryan Shealy (Ryan Howard-lite) to KC last season, and he could've played first and given them 30+ HR a year for 1/20 of the price. And if that's not enough, Helton is a guy who once came out into the field with a Fu Manchu, only to shave it between innings! He takes chances with facial hair. I respect that. Moving on..

UCLA lost to Stanford. Get it together, guys.

Federer won the Australian Open without dropping a set. I am in awe.

Tiger Woods won his 7th consecutive tournament. I am again in awe, and I am baffled at any talk that having a child could "distract" him from winning. He's married to a gorgeous Swedish woman, is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, does numerous endorsements and commercials, has singlehandedly changed the complexion and demographic of his sport, and he STILL is the most dominant player. Tiger could be changing the baby's diapers on the 17th green at Augusta and still eagle the hole. Don't worry about it.

The worst thing that could happen to Kevin Garnett is that his team is now in playoff contention. They may be a 7th or 8th seed at the end of the year, but they're not going past the first round, and the promise of "We're making the playoffs!!" will encourage management to keep him around. PLEASE trade him. Bill Simmons begged you. Now I'm begging you.

You haven't lived until you've heard Delonte West talk.

I want Grady Little to perform stand up comedy at my wedding. Or my funeral.

I want Barbaro to live. I really do. If he makes it, he'll spend the rest of his life impregnating females. It's like what Shawn Kemp does, only it's encouraged and doesn't carry child support.

Do you know the maple mesos? It is very interesting and if you have enough mesos,you can be strong. So i often go to play the game to get more and more cheap mesos, sometimes i can get the maplestory mesos from my friends who i know in the game. However i like the game very much because of the maple story mesos, i want to play the game more often.

Later my friends told me that if I want to play the game better I should go to earn the Perfect World Gold, so I was very quickly risen to thirty levels, and then I started to play the game alone.I go to Buy Perfect World Gold to treat myself in this game. However she was also very sad when I was hurt, she was sorry about this to me and I did not complain her at last. I was very happy and we went to earn the Perfect World Silver to equip us to become strong. Today I play the game again and I can get a lot of Perfect World money for her, I take her to upgrade and then add her experience. I have a lot of cheap Perfect World Gold and I want to give her in the game, i can have a lot of pw gold if my skills of playing the game well.

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